The River Pirates seemed like a logical evolution from the group of loosely affiliated people who had been playing weekly pick-up hockey together since the summer of 2004. Many of these people were first introduced to each other in the University of Minnesota’s PE Ice Hockey classes.

Paul McSherry, being the only amongst the group to play in the AHA before, introduced the concept of forming an AHA team to the weekly pick-up group. He found the ideal well received and interest was soon transformed into the River Pirates organization. 2005-06 was the team’s inaugural season.

An interesting and hard fought season found the River Pirates climbing their way to a second place C2 West Division finish and a playoff birth in the team’s first year with a 10-6-3-1 record. The LaBatt Blue Nationals weren’t meant to be as the Pirates fell flat facing off against their Eastern Division opponents with a 0-2-1 2006 playoff record.

The Pirates were able to improve on their record during the team’s second season and finished with a 12-6-1-1 record for third place in the C2 East Division. The 2006-07 season was a festivity of penalty minutes and bench turmoil as the team found itself atop the penalty leader board with 344 minutes, and several of the team members did not return for a third season.

In the 2007-08 season, the Pirates moved up to the AHA C1 tier and welcomed many new players to the team. They quickly gelled and were nearly unbeaten in the second half of the season ending up in second place of AHA C1 East. This success continued into the playoffs where the Pirates captured a pool championship and a birth to the national tournament in Blaine, MN. Competition was tough at nationals, but the Pirates made it to the semi finals only to lose to National City, the eventual national champion.

After a successful trip to nationals, the AHA moved the River Pirates up from C1 to the newly formed B2 tier. Going into the 2008-09 season, no players left the team and only one addition was made. The B2 division proved to be a much bigger challenge than initially thought and the team ended the season in last place - a far cry from the season before. As with the 06-07 season, the year ended with half of the team splitting off into a new team leaving the Pirates searching for many new players.

The 2009-10 season started with many questions since over half the team was new. Early play showed signs of a solid team, but as the games wore on, the team was in for another long season.

With two straight years of struggling at the B2 level, the Pirates have moved down to the C1 level for the 2010-11 season. This, unfortunately meant leaving some top players off the roster, as the leage deemed them too good for C1. However, the core of the team is still in place and there is optimisim in the air for the coming season with some new faces and a team eager to prove they've still got it.